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Chili is looking to expand its parks system with 48 acres on Archer Road

A new park is in the works for the Town of Chili on land off of Archer Road.

During a meeting last week, the Town Board approved spending $350,000 from its recreation reserve funds to buy a 48-acre parcel of former farmland just south of The Father's House church.

"For a town of our size, we're deficient in park space," said Town Supervisor David Dunning. "So when we concluded our most recent Chili Center master plan, there were some recommendations, and one of those was to consider purchasing additional land near the center for park space."

Indeed, Chili at 40 square miles and with a population of about 28,000 people, currently has about 331 acres of parks and open space areas. The National Recreation and Parks Association calls for about 10 acres of park land per 1,000 residents. Excluding Chili-owned lands not used as designated parks, there are roughly 7 acres of parks there per 1,000 residents. There are eight town parks, along with the Cornflower Property off Attridge Road and Pfrengle Property on Scottsville-Chili Road.

75 percent of respondents said parks, recreation services and open space are "very important" to quality of life in the town.

91 percent of respondents had visited parks or trails in Chili during the past year.

Respondents most desired additional recreational amenities including a spray park (constructed in 2016 at Union Station Park), more park shelters or lodges, indoor turf fields, play areas for children, linear trails/bike paths and large multi-use parks.

Dunning said the Archer Road parcel, formerly known as Zuber's Farm, would likely be developed into an area with baseball, soccer and lacrosse fields. In time and with additional funding, he said, the town could also erect a shelter or lodge on the parcel.

The parcel would also allow a pedestrian link to Archer Road from the town's Memorial Park off of Old Chili-Scottsville Road roughly parallel to the the CSX rail line

"We've had our eye on that land for a while," said Dunning.

If residents do not submit a petition to the town to force a referendum, the land purchase is likely to go through sometime after 30 days. If that happens, Dunning said development on the parcel could likely begin later this year.